A Very Local East London Diary

July 18, 2015

Just as Lower Clapton Road was never as crime-ridden as its old reputation suggested, neither is today's Clapton as a whole all posh coffee and bicycle boys with beards. This picture, taken earlier today, tells its own story as the two police officers on the scene confirmed. There'd been smash and grab raid on the Springbok Jewellers. In broad daylight too.

July 14, 2015

Exactly as I took this photograph a jazz trio was warming up at Dom's Place next door. That was fitting and hints at a potential for some interesting competition because Jackdaw, which is set to open soon at 201 Lower Clapton Road, has been described to me by one of the men doing it up as a forthcoming "jazz cafe". It replaces Cave of Plunder, whose treasures, it appears, weren't alluring punters in sufficient numbers.